Lafayette police arming themselves with a new weapon: cameras

Officer-mounted video recorders replacing patrol vehicle cameras

Smile Lafayette residents, your local police officers are capturing you on camera.

A growing number of patrol officers in the city have started wearing body-mounted cameras while on duty, recording everything from traffic stops to confrontational arrests.

And if the Lafayette Police Department can find the funds, all officers could soon carry cameras.

"We first started looking into them in 2009 when we did a study," said Lafayette Police Sgt. John Sellers, who presented the department's findings at the 2010 Rural Law Enforcement Technology Institute Conference. "It's trending right now in law enforcement because the technology is now practical to wear and not cumbersome."

Lafayette police officer Dan Tipton wears a chest-mounted GoPro camera while on duty. Though officers currently have to purchase their own body-mounted cameras, the trend is becoming increasingly popular with law enforcement. (Doug Pike / Colorado Hometown Weekly)

Currently, six of Lafayette's 40 sworn officers wear cameras. Lafayette has sought tech grants to outfit the entire department, but until roughly $20,000 in funds materializes officers are stuck paying for their own cameras.

As a result, the technology differs significantly from officer to officer.

Officer Dan Tipton wears a version of the popular square, chest-mounted GoPro camera.

Officer Gina Bodine totes a shoulder-mounted tubular Contour model and Sgt. Fred Palmer carries a camera so discreet that most people he encounters on duty wouldn't even notice it.

The main benefits are threefold, Sellers said.

The cameras reduce officer liability, protect officers from citizen complaints and provide evidence for use in court.

On the flipside, the cameras also will record officer misconduct.

"Officers who operate in the realm of unprofessional will be revealed," Sellers said. "But officers who act professionally will have that documented. It benefits both sides. The truth is recorded."

However, not everything is documented. Due to limited battery life and storage capabilities, it's up to the individual officer to turn their cameras on and off on-scene.

"They have to pick and choose, but if they're going into a situation where there's a likelihood for confrontation, they know to turn them on," Sellers said. "They try to record as much as possible, and at the end of the day they download the video onto a disk, which we file."

The department already uses recordings for training purposes. Officer Tipton recently recorded a training video during a trip to the shooting range, and Sellers said the department also uses on-duty video to show your officers how to respond to a certain situation.

"We use video as examples of how to talk with people, particularly when it comes to de-escalating a situation," he said.

Officer Bodine said she'll sometimes reference her recordings while filing her case reports. But while on patrol she said people rarely mention it.

"When people do notice it and ask me about it I just say, 'Yeah, I'm recording.' But usually people don't even know it's there."

She said often times the recordings end up saving taxpayers money.

"If a district attorney becomes aware of a video, and a defense attorney reviews the video, it will usually establish a plea bargain or assist with a case not going to trial," she said.

Dash-mounted cameras were installed in all Lafayette patrol vehicles until four or five years ago. The in-vehicle cameras were phased out due to the cost of maintaining and replacing the units.

"The officer-mounted units follow the officer wherever they go. The vehicle cameras just captured what was right in front of the vehicle," Sellers said.

The police department in neighboring Louisville has all of its patrol vehicles equipped with video and audio recorders, Louisville Police Cmdr. Bill Kingston said. He said the department has considered officer-mounted cameras as well.

"We have looked into a couple officer-mounted unitss but we haven't done any testing," Kingston said. "I think the officer-mount units make a lot of sense in a lot of ways."

The Erie Police Department had worked in-vehicle cameras into its budget for last year but ended up needing those funds for radios, Cmdr. Lee Mathis said.

"Right now we do not have officer-attached, body cams, car cams or anything like that," Mathis said. "But we may have in the future."

Sellers said while cameras have been a part of police work for some time, the officer-mounted units will play a significant roll in law enforcement going forward.

"If you don't consider it mainstream in law enforcement now, it will be in a short period of time," Sellers said. "More and more agencies have realized the value of having their officers armed with cameras."

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